Volume 54 July, 2011 Openbox: An Overview Openbox: Edit rc.xml To Gain Control Openbox: ZRAM ­ What It Is & How To Use It Game Zone: How To Install DirectX In Linux Using Wine Ladies Of PCLinuxOS: melodie Alternate OS: Plan9, Part 1 Using Scribus, Part 7: Add A Little Flair! Photo Viewers Galore, Part 3 Backup Basics, Part 3: luckyBackup WindowMaker On PCLinuxOS: Keeping Up Appearance Forum Foibles ms_meme's Nook And more inside! 3 Welcome From The Chief Editor 4 Openbox: An Overview 6 Screenshot Showcase 7 ms_meme's Nook: Tribute To O­P The PCLinuxOS name, logo and colors are the trademark of 8 Double Take & Mark's Quick Gimp Tip Texstar. The PCLinuxOS Magazine is a monthly online publication 9 Ladies Of PCLinuxOS: melodie containing PCLinuxOS­related materials. It is published primarily for members of the PCLinuxOS community. The 11 Forum Foibles: Hot Time In The Ol' Forum Tonight magazine staff is comprised of volunteers from the 12 Screenshot Showcase PCLinuxOS community. 13 Using Scribus, Part 7: Add A Little Flair! Visit us online at http://www.pclosmag.com 14 Screenshot Showcase This release was made possible by the following volunteers: Chief Editor: Paul Arnote (parnote) 15 Openbox: Edit rc.xml To Gain Control Assistant Editors: Meemaw, Andrew Strick (Stricktoo) 24 Screenshot Showcase Artwork: Sproggy, Timeth, ms_meme, Meemaw Magazine Layout: Paul Arnote, Meemaw, ms_meme 25 Alternate OS: Plan 9, Part 1 HTML Layout: Sproggy 29 Photo Viewers Galore, Part 3 Staff: Neal Brooks ms_meme 33 Screenshot Showcase Galen Seaman Mark Szorady Patrick Horneker Darrel Johnston 34 Game Zone: How To Install DirectX In Linux Using Wine Guy Taylor Meemaw Andrew Huff Gary L. Ratliff, Sr. 39 Screenshot Showcase Pete Kelly Daniel Meiß­Wilhelm 40 Openbox: ZRAM ­ What It Is & How To Use It Archie Arevalo Contributors: 41 ms_meme's Nook: Hot Hard Drive horusfalcon 42 Windowmaker On PCLinuxOS: Keeping Up Appearance The PCLinuxOS Magazine is released under the Creative 45 Backup Basics, Part 3: luckyBackup Commons Attribution­NonCommercial­Share­Alike 3.0 Unported license. Some rights are reserved. 51 More Screenshot Showcase Copyright © 2011. 2 WWeellccoommee FFrroomm TThhee CChhiieeff EEddiittoorr It’s here! It’s here! Meanwhile, stay tuned. Meemaw and myself have been brainstorming about some additional regular columns that may find their way into The PCLinuxOS Of course, I’m talking about the first 2011 release of Magazine very soon. We have a few more details to PCLinuxOS. Dubbed the “06.11” release, it has the work out, but have made some progress. latest version of KDE (4.6.4), the 2.6.38 Linux kernel, X.org Server 1.10.2, and updated video drivers. It also sports a new look, with brushed­metal July brings the American celebration of wallpaper and splash screens. independence from England, with the 4th of July holiday. For the rest of the northern hemisphere, July brings the beginning of some of the hottest An updated, 2011 ISO of PCLinuxOS­LXDE has summer weather of the year. Meanwhile, those living also been released, in both a “full” and light version. in the southern hemisphere are well into winter. It also sports the 2.6.38 Linux kernel, X.org Server 1.10.2, updated video drivers, and a new look using new brushed metal graphics. This month’s cover, by Meemaw, depicts the American 4th of July holiday, when families gather to celebrate that independence from England 235 Updated Gnome, Xfce, Openbox and e17 versions years ago with fireworks, picnics and family will be released soon. As is typical for a PCLinuxOS cookouts. rolling release, there is no need to reinstall … just so long as you have maintained an updated system by routinely (and regularly) updating your 2010 Until next month, I wish each of you peace, installation via Synaptic. happiness, serenity and tranquility. This month, we start up a new series of articles that cover the Openbox releases of PCLinuxOS. We also continue our series on using Scribus, photo viewers, WindowMaker on PCLinuxOS, backup basics, and alternate operating systems. With the “Ladies of Game Zone makes a return, with a reprint of a blog PCLinuxOS” article series, we get to learn more entry by Igor Ljubuncic at Dedoimedo.com about about another female member of the PCLinuxOS how to install DirectX in Linux using Wine, opening community. This month, we learn more about up access to a much greater number of Windows melodie. games that can be played on Linux using Wine. 3 OOppeennbbooxx:: AAnn OOvveerrvviieeww by Paul Arnote (parnote) If you are like most PCLinuxOS users, you have an old computer stuck back in a closet. Like most PCLinuxOS users, you cannot bear the thought of an older computer that has any life left in it sitting idle, especially if you can find a good use for that computer. Openbox can resurrect and re­purpose that old computer that’s just gathering dust in the back of that closet. With minimal hardware requirements, Openbox can breathe new life into that old computer, and provide a very usable second computer. History & Background Openbox, currently at version 3.4, has been devoid responsive Openbox is on a newer computer with a of any remaining Blackbox code since version 3.0. faster, more modern processor and more memory. To get a real feel for the history of Openbox, you The Openbox project is written primarily by Dana have to go back in time to a point before Openbox Jansens of Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario, Of course, I have fully updated my system, since the came to fruition. Openbox was originally derived Canada. Openbox also serves as the window latest Live CD is from November, 2010. I am running from the X window manager Blackbox. Blackbox manager for the LXDE desktop environment. the 2.38.x kernel, along with X.org 1.9.5. Above is a was created in 1997 as a lightweight X window screen shot that shows my CPU and memory usage. manager, and was written in C++ with entirely These values are after all the tweaks I’ve applied to original code. Along about Blackbox 0.65, Openbox Putting It To Use my Openbox installation. For example, I’m running was spun off, and is written entirely in C. tilda in the background, and using gnome­power­ I have installed Openbox on an IBM Thinkpad T23, manager as my battery notification and power running a Pentium III 1.13 GHz processor, with 512 manager. Tint2, a lightweight panel replacement, MB RAM, and a S3 SuperSavage IX/C graphics serves as my panel. All information comes from card with 8 MB video RAM. To say that the T23 is running htop at the command line prompt in tilda. fast and responsive running Openbox is an understatement. With the low CPU demands and Below (next page) is my tweaked Openbox desktop, low memory overhead of Openbox, the T23 acts like displaying a custom wallpaper I created a few years a new computer. I can only imagine how fast and ago. I’ve applied a custom Openbox window theme, 4 Openbox: An Overview older computer you may have lying around. Will it make your Pentium III with 512 MB RAM behave like a new computer with a quad­core processor and 4 GB RAM? Certainly not. But then again, you will have another computer running PCLinuxOS, and one that can do service as a media server, or as a computer that does the “basic tasks” (like checking email, creating documents, browsing the web, etc.) very, very well. Openbox is not for beginning Linux users. Tweaking and tuning Openbox involves, in many cases, hand editing various configuration files that are tucked away in your Linux file system. In keeping with the lightweight nature of Openbox, there aren’t a lot of GUI tools available to assist with the management of those files, as there are with the bigger and heavier full­blown desktop environments like KDE and Gnome. But if you ever wanted to learn more about Linux and how it all comes together, learning the ins and outs of Openbox will be help you along that path. If you are a power Linux user, then you will feel right at home with Openbox, and with making all of the manual edits to the configuration files to tweak and tune your Openbox installation. One difference that I did notice was the inclusion of sudo in the PCLinuxOS Openbox ISOs. Traditionally, sudo is NOT included with official PCLinuxOS releases, since an improper use of sudo could compromise the security of a computer it is being used on. In somewhat of a defense, there is called Appleish. After my tint2 configuration took a Summary & Things To Come not a user predefined in the sudoers file. Still, it has nosedive, I went with the default tint2 configuration – become pretty much standard operating procedure for PCLinuxOS to not embrace the use of sudo. of course, with a few custom, handmade tweaks to The PCLinuxOS Openbox ISO, created by Having sudo pre­installed gives the opposite the tint2 configuration file. PCLinuxOS community member melodie, is rock impression. solid. It goes a long way to breathing new life into an 5 Openbox: An Overview As we here at the magazine explore Openbox, we’ll be bringing you articles on ways to customize your PCLinuxOS Openbox installation. Hopefully, these articles will show you the elegance, simplicity and Screenshot Showcase various uses of Openbox, as well as ways you can Screenshot Showcase customize and tailor your Openbox installation. Through the articles we have planned, we hope that we take the “sting” out of configuring Openbox, and show you the options you have for tweaking Openbox.